With more than 30 years’ experience in the residential and commercial water treatment space, Mark Nelson is a Class 1 Drinking-Water Operator and a CBWA (Canadian Bottled Water Association) Certified Plant Operator. As founder and president of Nelson Water in Ottawa, Mark focuses on dealing with challenging water treatment system designs for problem water. He also heads the largest water bottling plant in the city of Ottawa with a delivery network throughout the Valley.

Water is essential for all life, but in many cases, it isn’t clean. It has to go through multiple stages of treatment before it’s ready to use in our homes. Even after this process, the water has to travel through pipes and fixtures that may be compromised. This can affect the water negatively, and we often have to use water that contains bacteria, algae, and limescale. If you want to improve the quality of your water supply, it can be hard to find the best solution. There are many methods to treat your water, but in this article, we will focus on two, water softeners and water conditioners.

Are Softeners and Conditioners Similar?

Many people use the two terms in an interchangeable way, which is incorrect. Water softeners and water conditioners are quite different; they do have some similarities. Both types of systems are designed to deal with water hardness issues. Hard water is caused by elevated concentrations of naturally occurring minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, silica, and to a lesser extent, iron. These minerals cause a great deal of damage to home plumbing systems, water using appliances, and our skin, nails, and hair. Limescale can form on the surface of heating elements causing them to work less efficiently, and this drives up energy bills. But, it’s important to understand that water softeners and water conditioners work in a very different way from each other.

Water Softener Systems

A water softener is purely designed to remove hardness from the incoming water supply. There are a number of methods in use, but the most effective one is the ion-exchange method. The water softener exchanges the mineral ions for sodium (salt) ions that are softer and more benign. This system requires the user to purchase and fill a brine take with water softener salt. The most common type of salt used is sodium, but people sensitive to that, can use potassium instead. The mineral ions that adhere to the surface of resin beads in the media bed are flushed away during the recharge cycle. A water softener used in isolation cannot remove any other contaminants, although certain units do have a built-in iron filter.

Water Conditioner Systems

A water conditioner is different. This is an innovative solution to the problem that manipulates how the mineral content behaves in a liquid. The minerals are still in place, but they cannot accumulate on surfaces to form limescale. This may be an attractive alternative to some people that would like to avoid adding any type of salt to their water. But, there are other advantages to using a water conditioner system. A water softener will not remove any biological contaminants, such as algae and bacteria, that can cause the formation of biofilms on surfaces.

The method used to achieve water conditioning can vary depending on the specific model (more on this below). But, every water conditioner will not remove any mineral ions throughout the conditioning process. To make the situation more confusing, you may sometimes see a water conditioner advertised as a “No-Salt Water Softener”. No matter what you see on the packaging, a water conditioner may be a better option for some homeowners.

Aside from biofilm prevention and the lack of any need for salt, you may be interested to learn that conditioners are usually less expensive to buy and maintain. A water conditioner could use a physical method that manipulates how ions behave, and others have a chemical component to complete the conditioning process. Let’s take a look at some of the common options for each type of water conditioning method.

5 Types of Physical Water Conditioners

There are five different types of physical water conditioning methods; they are:

1. Magnetic

Some water conditioners create a magnetic field in the water that alters the behavior of the ions that make the water hard. The mineral ions have a tendency to cluster together to form limescale on surfaces. But, the magnetic field is supposed to make them less likely to act in this manner. It’s important to mention that there is no scientific evidence to support these claims.

2. Electromagnetic

This is a similar method to the magnetic option mentioned above, but the magnetic field is generated with electricity rather than magnets. Again there isn’t much support for the efficacy of this type of approach, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to choose this over a magnetic option.

3. Template-Assisted Crystallization (TAC)

The TAC method uses resin beads as a media to form a catalytic nucleation. This changes the makeup of the minerals to give them a crystalline structure that cannot cling to surfaces. The mineral crystals are microscopic in size, and they flow throughout the water easily. This may seem a little similar to the ion-exchange method used in a water softener, but these resin beads don’t require a regeneration cycle.

4. Electrolysis

This method works like a battery; electrodes are suspended in the water to release zinc ions with a positive charge. Electrons are released, which move along a wire to a cathode, and when the zinc dissolves, the process ends.

5. Electrical Induction

An electrical current procedures a precipitate that forms a layer of material on an electrode where it needs to be cleaned away. This layer of “sludge” is the mineral content that has been removed from the water.

3 Types of “Chemical” Water Conditioners

These three water conditioner types alter the chemical makeup of the water; they include:

1. Chelation

This is when a chemical compound is added to the water, and the mineral content binds to it. This creates water that has suspended minerals that cannot bind to a surface.

2. Clark’s Process

This is also known as “lime softening”; this is when calcium hydroxide (limewater) is added to the water to make the mineral ions precipitate.

3. Reverse Osmosis (RO)

The RO method uses a physical removal process when the water is forced through a semi-permeable membrane under pressure. But, it can be considered a chemical process because some acid is introduced to the water to prevent fouling within the system.

If you want to install a water softener or conditioner in your home, contact your local water treatment specialist for expert help and advice.